This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/22/2016
The 1933 Goudey series is undoubtedly the most popular pre-war baseball set ever produced that gives the mid to advanced collector a reasonable chance of completion. Of course, including a quartet of Babe Ruth cards and a pair of Lou Gehrig pasteboards doesn't hurt your chances of success at all. While "The Babe's" career was beginning to wind down in 1933, managing "only" 34 homers and a human .301 batting average at the age of 38, the 30 year old "Iron Horse" was slightly over halfway into his consecutive game streak, coming off a season that saw him notch over 30 homers for the fourth straight year and topping the .340 mark for the third straight time. Now some may argue that having Ruth in the lineup may have inflated Gehrig's numbers above what he could have amassed on another team, but in the four year he played after Ruth's departure, Gehrig averaged 36 homers, 136 RBI and a .332 batting average, all comparable to his production in 9 full seasons playing with "The Bambino." He also won the 1936 Most Valuable Player award and kept his legendary streak alive. Presented is one of the finest surviving examples of Lou Gehrig's 1933 Goudey card #92 that anyone has ever seen. With so few exemplars of Goudey cards at the GEM MINT level, it's hard to know the telltale signs of what separates MINT from GEM MINT, often a blurred distinction with any series, but we have to believe that this incredible specimen can't be far from the ultimate level of the SGC grading scale. The centering is outstanding, no more that a degree off in any direction, while all four of the endpoints could be considered GEM MINT and no one would raise a finger to dispute it. The image of Gehrig, along with the accompanying baby blue backdrop and red "BIG LEAGUE CHEWING GUM" nameplate are delivered without flaw, and the reverse contains sharp green print on a bright surface. SGC calls it 96 MINT 9, matched by just 2 others with none graded higher, and everyone is welcome to speculate as to what keeps it from a GEM MINT holder, but there's no doubt that this is one of the finest baseball cards in existence, featuring a true baseball immortal!